Considering dropping out. I was looking for some input.

Student Lounge College Life
1

Hello,

I am currently a Finance major, and I am in my third year. I am strongly considering dropping out, and here’s why. I messed up earlier in my college career. I was a major slacker and received a lot of C’s. I only turned the corner a year ago when I spent most of my college days in the mouth of a bottle and hit rock bottom after failing two classes. I decided not to drop out and see if I can do this.

I started working hard, at first I went part time, then last fall, I went back full time taking my business classes. At first I was nervous, I had a heavy course load like Business Law, Accounting, and Economics. It was hard, but I finished with nothing below a B-. (Just one class, the rest were high B’s.)

I was proud, and felt like I could do this again. Then certain things dawned upon me that started with an email from the assistant dean. Apparently, there are some things I need to do to find a good job. Get a 3.0 GPA, join a club, get an internship. This really stresses me out.

I have a 2.8 GPA, and because of that, I feel like most internships won’t even look at me. As a matter of fact, I am not sure I will get above a 3.0 GPA. That means in the eyes of many, it’s going to be a constant uphill battle.

My whole college career is that way. I work hard already trying to pay for my own tuition, when do people expect me to join a group? Why is there so much added stress to going to college? As if getting a degree isn’t enough anymore. Let me tell you, working and being broke all the time just so I can pay for my tuition and textbooks, on top of studying all the time to get good grades, only to fail does not sound like a fruitful investment to me.

I almost just want to work full time, and not have to constantly worry about grades, GPA, internships, clubs, work, my finances, and beyond that. If I graduated tomorrow, would 30k in debt land me at K-Mart? It’s all very discouraging.

I’m also tired of being the hardest worker, who goes to every class, every office hour, and studies my brains out to get mediocre test grades while it seems like everyone around me does better and puts in less work.

Can someone, anyone give me some guidance?

2

Finish school, lots of employers won’t look at your grades or ECs, just whether you have a degree or not.

3

I agree-- it’s the degree that matters, not the GPA, for a lot of jobs.

But you are sending a mixed message. You open by saying " I was a major slacker and received a lot of C’s. I only turned the corner a year ago when I spent most of my college days in the mouth of a bottle and hit rock bottom after failing two classes. I decided not to drop out and see if I can do this." Then switch to "My whole college career is that way. I work hard already trying to pay for my own tuition, when do people expect me to join a group? "

This is your life, your future. Statistically, you’ll earn more during your lifetime with a college degree than without one.

But what do you see yourself doing in 20, 30, 40 years?? You’ll spend all of them working, so now is the time to narrow down the choice of what you’ll be doing. Plenty of people are content with a job as opposed to a career-- are you one of them?

4

Finish school. Do not QUIT when the GOING gets tough.

Instead, change your habits, your ways.

Your life today is a result of your actions of yesterday.

IT’s no one’s fault but your own that your life isn’t as successful or desirable as you want it to be.

The question now is, are you going to change your behaviors and rise (increase your GPA / resume), are you going to remain constant and stay the same, or are you going to give up and be a loser?

The choice is yours. And sacrifices must be made if you want to move upwards in life.

Give up TV / movies / video games / fun activities. Only do what benefits your academic success each and every day.

5

First of all: well done to you! You have started to step up and make some changes that will benefit you over the long haul.

Fixing mistakes can be longer and harder than seems fair. You are learning good study habits- but it takes work. You are now in higher level classes, without a strong grounding in the base courses, so you may well be working harder for less obvious results. And as you aren’t a kid, and aren’t at home anymore, you don’t have a cheer squad behind you to say ‘hey- I see what you are doing- keep up the good work’ or offer encouragement on a bad day (which there will always be a few of).

And, well done for coming here and owning up to how hard you are finding your new path. I hope that most of what you find here is encouragement and support.

Having said that:

I don’t know what college you go to, but I know that this ^^ is factually wrong. The key word is ‘seems’ and the big question is about who the “everyone” is around you. If you were a ‘slacker’ and have now changed paths, have you also changed or expanded your friend group(s)? Truly, one of the things that makes working hard better is being around other people who are working hard. Look for those people. They are the other people waiting for office hours, in the library at odd times, at the Writing Center or meeting in study groups. Be bold and introduce yourself. Get to know some of the people that you may not have had any interest in knowing when you were busy partying.

Every path has fellow travelers who make the journey better.

6

Finish your degree!!!

Like others say, for some jobs it just matters if you have one or not. It shows that you can set a long term goal and accomplish it. Also you clearly can do the work…you just have to do it!

Have you ever heard of Stanford Duck Syndrome? It means that you look cool and calm on the surface, but are paddling like crazy under the surface. So you don’t really know who is studying hard or just appearing to know it all.

Also i have seen articles where the hard worker often does better than the innately smart.
http://time.com/money/3551606/hardworking-child-versus-smart/
http://fortune.com/2014/06/19/career-wise-is-it-better-to-be-smart-or-hardworking/

7

Dude, my college roommate was a major slacker. he finished school with a few Bs and mainly Cs (he also managed to pull my GPA down for 2 semesters by getting me into too many sports lol). He then somehow managed to get into an MS and then a PhD program and somehow became a straight A student. Worked for a few years and then became an entrepreneur and sold his last company for 165 million. His current venture just raised capital at a 350 million valuation. He is written about in tech blogs etc and has received many honors. There are other ex-slacker buddies of mine doing well too. Do the best you can - there is a a lot more to life ahead of you. Keep on the path to improvement. You will be surprised by how much people value hard work to improve grades over maintaining straight As once you exit college.

8

Totally agree with many of the above suggestions. The battle is always in the mind. Don’t let anxiety rob you of your life’s mission. That email triggered something in you. That’s what I’d work on. The dean was probably just trying to cover his/her bases and make sure that basic information gets out there.

My husband doesn’t have any degree and is one of the most successful people I have ever known.

9

You are so close, the hard work will be all worth it.

10

You don’t need to join a club to get a job. Most employers don’t care about clubs. Some don’t even care about your GPA; they just want you to have the degree. The majority of employers don’t even ask about your GPA.

11

You’re almost done! The hard part is over because you now know what it takes to finish. This year will be your hardest because the backbone of your coursework is done in junior year and it has tested your mettle and you are doubting yourself and are tired of: studying, working, lacking sleep/rest and being broke. Yes, you are frustrated. Those of us, who have been through this process, completely understand where you are coming from. Please don’t quit.

My husband gave me some really good advice when I felt I had nothing left to give to my education and was just shy of quitting: “Take it like bad-tasting medicine; it will initially taste really bad, but after you swallow it, you will feel better.” So, I looked at future graduation dates and counted the number of days to graduation and slowly started a countdown. I felt successful after crossing off each day. It helps to physically cross the number off or throw out the memo paper.

Finish your degree because you will have major regrets (like my roommate did). If you don’t, you won’t be able to return easily to finish your degree and your previous sacrifices will have been very expensive, long term, in terms of time and money. You can do it! You’ve done it so far!